Predict the 2013 Oscars

Staff Member

The 86th annual Academy Awards (Oscars) broadcast will be Sunday, March 2, announcing the winners for the best movies of 2013.

This year's host is Ellen DeGeneres, who previously hosted in 2007. They apparently wanted someone "safe", meaning nothing like last year's host Seth MacFarlane. Ellen will have a hard time earning reviews as good as Tina Fey and Amy Poehler did for their Golden Globes hosting.

You may notice that there are only 4 songs in the "Best Original Song" category. That's because the 5th nomination was disqualified and the nomination withdrawn after nominee Bruce Broughton emailed other Academy members about his nomination. That's considered improper campaigning, even though major studies are allowed to spend tons of money on ads boasting about their films' nominations.

I assume it was a clerical error that prevented my favorite, "Oz the Great and Powerful", from being nominated in all categories. I haven't seen as many of the nominated movies as I usually do. It's hard when you're busy watching 230 hours of Winter Olympic coverage!

Obviously, the two grandest movies of 2013 were "The Grandmaster" and "Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa".

This thread is mostly about the contest, but you can post other discussion of the Oscars too. I spotted these other relevant forum threads:

This is the 12th annual MacRumors Oscar Contest. This year there are 121 nominations for 56 movies in 24 categories. The forum contestant with the most correct predictions wins the traditional prize: MacRumors bragging rights. I will check the predictions against the award winners and post the results after the telecast.

Here's how to vote:

Copy the ballot from the next post below.

Delete all but one line in each category, leaving 1 choice per category (your prediction).

Post it in this thread.

Contest rules:

Post between now and 6:00pm Eastern time Sunday.

Do not edit your post after voting.

One ballot per person.

You need not vote in every category but there's no penalty for guessing. Good luck!

Staff Member

Best Actor: Chiwetel Ejiofor for 12 Years a Slave
Best Actor: Christian Bale for American Hustle
Best Actor: Matthew McConaughey for Dallas Buyers Club
Best Actor: Bruce Dern for Nebraska
Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio for The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Actress: Amy Adams for American Hustle
Best Actress: Meryl Streep for August: Osage County
Best Actress: Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine
Best Actress: Sandra Bullock for Gravity
Best Actress: Judi Dench for Philomena

Best Adapted Screenplay: John Ridley for 12 Years a Slave
Best Adapted Screenplay: Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, and Ethan Hawke for Before Midnight
Best Adapted Screenplay: Billy Ray for Captain Phillips
Best Adapted Screenplay: Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope for Philomena
Best Adapted Screenplay: Terence Winter for The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Animated Short Film: Daniel Sousa and Dan Golden for Feral
Best Animated Short Film: Lauren MacMullan and Dorothy McKim for Get a Horse!
Best Animated Short Film: Laurent Witz and Alexandre Espigares for Mr. Hublot
Best Animated Short Film: Shuhei Morita for Possessions
Best Animated Short Film: Max Lang and Jan Lachauer for Room on the Broom

Best Cinematography: Philippe Le Sourd for The Grandmaster
Best Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki for Gravity
Best Cinematography: Bruno Delbonnel for Inside Llewyn Davis
Best Cinematography: Phedon Papamichael for Nebraska
Best Cinematography: Roger A. Deakins for Prisoners

Best Costume Design: Patricia Norris for 12 Years a Slave
Best Costume Design: Michael Wilkinson for American Hustle
Best Costume Design: William Chang Suk Ping for The Grandmaster
Best Costume Design: Catherine Martin for The Great Gatsby
Best Costume Design: Michael OConnor for The Invisible Woman

Best Director: Steve McQueen for 12 Years a Slave
Best Director: David O. Russell for American Hustle
Best Director: Alfonso Cuarón for Gravity
Best Director: Alexander Payne for Nebraska
Best Director: Martin Scorsese for The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Documentary Feature: Morgan Neville, Gil Friesen, and Caitrin Rogers for 20 Feet from Stardom
Best Documentary Feature: Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen for The Act of Killing
Best Documentary Feature: Zachary Heinzerling and Lydia Dean Pilcher for Cutie and the Boxer
Best Documentary Feature: Richard Rowley and Jeremy Scahill for Dirty Wars
Best Documentary Feature: Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer for The Square

Best Documentary Short Subject: Jeffrey Karoff for CaveDigger
Best Documentary Short Subject: Jason Cohen for Facing Fear
Best Documentary Short Subject: Sara Ishaq for Karama Has No Walls
Best Documentary Short Subject: Malcolm Clarke and Nicholas Reed for The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life
Best Documentary Short Subject: Edgar Barens for Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall

Best Film Editing: Joe Walker for 12 Years a Slave
Best Film Editing: Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers, and Alan Baumgarten for American Hustle
Best Film Editing: Christopher Rouse for Captain Phillips
Best Film Editing: John Mac McMurphy and Martin Pensa for Dallas Buyers Club
Best Film Editing: Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger for Gravity

Best Live Action Short Film: Selma Vilhunen and Kirsikka Saari for Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa?
Best Live Action Short Film: Anders Walter and Kim Magnusson for Helium
Best Live Action Short Film: Xavier Legrand and Alexandre Gavras for Avant Que De Tout Perdre
Best Live Action Short Film: Esteban Crespo for Aquel No Era Yo
Best Live Action Short Film: Mark Gill and Baldwin Li for The Voorman Problem

Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews for Dallas Buyers Club
Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Stephen Prouty for Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Joel Harlow and Gloria Pasqua-Casny for The Lone Ranger

Best Original Score: John Williams for The Book Thief
Best Original Score: Steven Price for Gravity
Best Original Score: William Butler and Owen Pallett for Her
Best Original Score: Alexandre Desplat for Philomena
Best Original Score: Thomas Newman for Saving Mr. Banks

Best Original Screenplay: Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell for American Hustle
Best Original Screenplay: Woody Allen for Blue Jasmine
Best Original Screenplay: Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack for Dallas Buyers Club
Best Original Screenplay: Spike Jonze for Her
Best Original Screenplay: Bob Nelson for Nebraska

Best Original Song: Pharrell Williams for "Happy" in Despicable Me 2
Best Original Song: Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez for "Let It Go" in Frozen
Best Original Song: Karen O and Spike Jonze for "The Moon Song" in Her
Best Original Song: Paul Hewson, Dave Evans, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen for "Ordinary Love" in Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

Best Picture: Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Steve McQueen, and Anthony Katagas for 12 Years a Slave
Best Picture: Charles Roven, Richard Suckle, Megan Ellison, and Jonathan Gordon for American Hustle
Best Picture: Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, and Michael De Luca for Captain Phillips
Best Picture: Robbie Brenner and Rachel Winter for Dallas Buyers Club
Best Picture: Alfonso Cuarón and David Heyman for Gravity
Best Picture: Megan Ellison, Spike Jonze, and Vincent Landay for Her
Best Picture: Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa for Nebraska
Best Picture: Gabrielle Tana, Steve Coogan, and Tracey Seaward for Philomena
Best Picture: Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, Joey McFarland, and Emma Tillinger Koskoff for The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Production Design: Adam Stockhausen and Alice Baker for 12 Years a Slave
Best Production Design: Judy Becker and Heather Loeffler for American Hustle
Best Production Design: Andy Nicholson, Rosie Goodwin, and Joanne Woollard for Gravity
Best Production Design: Catherine Martin and Beverley Dunn for The Great Gatsby
Best Production Design: K.K. Barrett and Gene Serdena for Her

Best Sound Editing: Steve Boeddeker and Richard Hymns for All Is Lost
Best Sound Editing: Oliver Tarney for Captain Phillips
Best Sound Editing: Glenn Freemantle for Gravity
Best Sound Editing: Brent Burge for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Best Sound Editing: Wylie Stateman for Lone Survivor

Best Supporting Actor: Michael Fassbender for 12 Years a Slave
Best Supporting Actor: Bradley Cooper for American Hustle
Best Supporting Actor: Barkhad Abdi for Captain Phillips
Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto for Dallas Buyers Club
Best Supporting Actor: Jonah Hill for The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyong'o for 12 Years a Slave
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Lawrence for American Hustle
Best Supporting Actress: Julia Roberts for August: Osage County
Best Supporting Actress: Sally Hawkins for Blue Jasmine
Best Supporting Actress: June Squibb for Nebraska

I would tend to agree. Gravity has certainly blurred the lines between cinematography and special effects. I guess it is something that the Oscars are going to have consider more and more in the coming years.

Staff Member

I would tend to agree. Gravity has certainly blurred the lines between cinematography and special effects. I guess it is something that the Oscars are going to have consider more and more in the coming years.

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I remember the arguments over whether Andy Serkis doing motion caption for Lord of the Rings made him eligible for an acting nomination.

P.S. I'm happy to say that, once again, I was able to see all nine Best Picture nominees. Also, disappointed that the Academy overlooked 42 (Harrison Ford for Best Supporting Actor), The Butler, The Way Way Back (Allison Janney for Best Supporting Actress) and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (for Cinematography).

Staff Member

Being a space geek, I'm going with Gravity for 7 out of its 10 nominations. I actually enjoyed American Hustle even more, since it's too crazy to be true, yet it's true (like Argo last year). But I don't think either of them will be Best Picture. This year I don't think any film put together the whole package (screenplay, acting, and directing). That makes it one of the rare years when the Best Picture doesn't also win Best Director. That's happened only twice in the last 10 years (for the movies of 2005 and 2012). Of course I always make the mistake of guessing differently than my wife, and I'm doing that again this year. But it's more fun that way.

For screenplays I'm picking Spike Jonze over Woody Allen in a close race. They split the "overseas awards" (Golden Globes and BAFTA Awards). The Writers Guild chose Jonze, and that's a vote of practitioners. But the Oscars are selected by the entire Academy membership, most of whom are actors, not writers. Allen gets more negative publicity and isn't a friend to awards like this.

For Foreign Language Film I personally found The Hunt to be most compelling (both frightening and heartfelt), but it just didn't feel like an Oscar winner.

The toughest call is Best Supporting Actress, with Lupita Nyong'o vs. Jennifer Lawrence. Lawrence was great, but she won last year playing another crazy lady, so I'm going with Nyong'o.

Dallas Buyers Club, and possibly 12 Years a Slave and The Butler might surprise you.

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I'm sure that you're right. My snarky overgeneralization is just my general feeling that, aside from financially, awards mean very little in terms of the the film arts. There are, certainly, some wonderful films that have won awards...but I find the awards completely meaningless.

compared to other years i found this year very,very much filled with oscar worthy films and great performances: 12 years a slave, american hustle(fantastic cast!), blue jasmine, Dallas Buyers Club, wolf of wall street, gravity (cinematography!)

I'm really only interested in the main awards. All the technical awards I expect to go to Gravity and the costume/make-up stuff to either go to American Hustle or The Great Gatsby.

Best Picture: 12 Years a Slave
Best Actor: Mathhew McConaughey
Best Actress: Cate Blanchett
Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto
Best Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyongo
Best Original Screenplay: Spike Jonze for Her
Best Adapted Screenplay: John Ridley for 12 Years a Slave
Best Cinematography: Gravity
Best Animated Feature: Frozen

Personally, I think Inside Llewyn Davis was the best film this year, and Her was better than 12 Years a Slave, but I know Her is not a frontrunner for Best Picture and I don't expect it to win. Also I felt the cinematography for Inside Llewyn Davis helped the film tell the story more efficiently than Gravity. I also liked Leonardo DiCaprio in Wolf of Wall Street the most, but the Academy doesn't like him, so thats why I picked McConaughey to win.

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